PhysicsQ&A by dot point

Capacitance and the energy stored, charging and discharging through a resistor with the time constant, and the behaviour of capacitors in d.c. and a.c. circuits.

Electric charge and Coulomb's law, electric field strength, electric potential, and the motion of a charged particle in an electric field.

Electromagnetic radiation as orthogonal oscillating electric and magnetic fields, the unification of electricity and magnetism by Maxwell, and the speed of light from the relationship c equals one over the square root of permittivity times permeability.

Self-inductance and back emf, Lenz's law, the energy stored in an inductor, the growth and decay of current in an RL circuit, and inductive reactance.

The magnetic field around a current, the force on a current-carrying conductor and on a moving charge, magnetic flux, and Millikan's experiment.

Planning an investigation, gathering and processing raw data with uncertainties, and writing the project report that contributes 30 marks to the award.

Random, systematic and reading uncertainties, absolute and percentage uncertainties, combining uncertainties, and presenting data with graphs, best-fit lines and error bars.

SI base and derived units, metric prefixes, scientific notation, significant figures and the consistent handling of units in calculations.

Coherence and path difference, constructive and destructive interference, division of amplitude in thin films and wedges, and division of wavefront in Young's double-slit experiment.

Photons and quantised energy, wave-particle duality and the de Broglie wavelength, the uncertainty principle, and quantum tunnelling.

Cosmic rays and the solar wind, the motion of charged particles in magnetic fields, and the formation of aurorae.

Plane polarisation of transverse waves, the action of polarisers and Malus's law, polarisation by reflection and Brewster's angle, and applications.

The definition of simple harmonic motion, displacement, velocity and acceleration as functions of time, energy in SHM, and damping.

The travelling-wave equation, phase and phase difference, and the formation and properties of stationary waves.

Angular displacement, velocity and acceleration, the angular equations of motion, the link between angular and linear quantities, and central (centripetal) force.

The equivalence principle, general relativity as the curvature of spacetime by mass and energy, the bending of light, black holes and the Schwarzschild radius.

Gravitational field strength and potential, gravitational potential energy, escape velocity, satellite orbits and Kepler's third law.

Calculus relationships between displacement, velocity and acceleration, derivation of the equations of motion by integration, and motion under constant and varying acceleration.

Torque and moment of inertia, the rotational form of Newton's second law, rotational kinetic energy, angular momentum and its conservation.

Luminosity, apparent brightness and the inverse-square law, the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, stellar evolution and energy from the proton-proton chain.